a grammar review lesson

8/9/2019 A Grammar Review Lesson

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)istilling the grammar rules down to the most important points and the ones which

will actually help them$

*aising learners´awareness of the mistakes they make and+or are most often made

when using the tenses$

efore you even get to thinking about those things though, you need to consider which tenses

you´re actually going to teach: %ll of them? 'ome of them? -ne of them? %fter reading that

./0 of spoken communication in English among native speakers makes use of just four

tenses1present simple, present continuous 2or progressive3, past simple and present perfect1

I decided to focus my attention on these four, which I´ve come to call !the big four"$ We

could argue about how non4native speaker language use differs from native speaker language

use, but I nevertheless see these four as e5cellent building blocks for English grammar$ In the

workplace you will definitely need the present simple to talk about facts, routines and

permanent situations$ 6ou will also need the present continuous to talk abou temporary

situations and tell people what you´re doing at the moment$ 6ou have to use the past simple

to tell people about what you did yesterday, last week or last year$ &he present perfect is often

used to let colleagues know what you have already done and what you haven´t done yet and

while making small talk about where you´ve been and where you´ve worked$

7hoosing the wrong tense may result in it being unclear whether you´ve done something or

are still doing it and this can lead to complications in the workplace$ If you say: !I´m

working here for 8 months" when you should have said: !I´ve worked+ I´ve been working

here for 8 months", the colleague visiting you will not e5pect to see you again on his ne5t trip

and may well not prioritise building a relationship with you, as a result$

&he tenses review lesson that I´ve developed would be most effective with learners at 9 or

level who already have some knowledge of these four tenses and how to use them, but are

in need of a refresher lesson or review$ I´ve deliberately decided not to focus on the future

e5plicitly here, but I have mentioned the use of the present simple to talk about timetabled

events in the future and I have often found that this lesson has led learners to ask #uestions

about the future, such as what about using the present continuous to talk about future plans

and arrangements$ I would see a lesson reviewing how to talk about the future as being anatural follow4on from this lesson1I don´t want to try to do it all in ;/ or </ minutes$

93 &ell the learners that native speakers use four tenses in ./0 of spoken English$ %sk them

to guess which four tenses these four could be$ &his will give you an indication of their level

of awareness of grammar terminology and the ideas or concepts behind the different tenses$

%ccept their guesses if they don´t know the name of the tenses but they know what the



idea2s3 behind them is, for e5ample, if they say: !-ne of them is the tense for things that

happened in the past and are finished$" 6ou could also ask them if it surprises them that

these four tenses are used so fre#uently and why or why not$

3 &ell the learners that you´re going to give them some information about all four tensesand you would like them to read it and use the information there and their own knowledge to

find answers to the three #uestions below and then present these answers to the rest of the

group:

9$ What situations do you use this tense to describe?

$ What are the three most important things to remember about this tense?

8$ What mistakes to English learners often make when using this tense?

6ou may want to reformulate these #uestions using simpler language with lower level

learners$

6ou can download my overview of !the big four" here$

*emind the learners that you will not accept them just reading aloud from the tenses

overview when they present their answers1they have to present the information in their own

words and add their own ideas too$

)epending on the number in the group, you may need to have a small group, a pair or just

one individual working on one tense$ If you have to have a combination of pairs and

individuals, I would suggest giving the tenses which are a little easier to e5plain, e$g$ present

simple and past simple, to the individuals or the weaker learners, and those which are a little

more challenging, e$g$ present continuous and present perfect, to the pairs or stronger

learners$

83 (onitor the learners as they´re working on their answers, giving them any support that

they need and making suggestions$ &he area where the learners will probably need the most

support is thinking about typical mistakes made when using the tense$ &he amount of time

the learners will need to prepare their answers will range from 9/ minutes to 8/ minutes

depending on the group$

=3 When all the groups are finished, ask them to present their answers$ Encourage the other

learners to ask #uestions to those who are presenting and add any points which you consider

important and any typical mistakes you know which they haven´t mentioned$

http://de.scribd.com/doc/116810107

http://de.scribd.com/doc/116810107



>3 %fter this review of the four tenses, I go on to do a speaking activity in which the learners

have to use the four tenses and their #uestion forms$ &his is a variant on the popular !find

someone who" activity$

a3 I write on the board or flipchart: ind someone who@ and then ask them to complete thissentence four ways using a different one of the four tenses each time$ I give them e5amples to

get them started:

Find someone who…lives in Heidenheim

Find someone who…is working to a deadline at the moment

Find someone who…went to a Christmas market last weekend

Find someone who…has een to Berlin! has seen the new "ames Bond #ilm

*emind them that they should write sentences that they think or know will be applicable to

at least one other person in the group, so !find someone who has been to the moon", fore5ample, is not allowed, for e5ampleA

b3 When they have their four sentences, they can use them to create #uestions they will then

ask the rest of the group$ *eview the different #uestion forms you use for the four different

tenses$

$resent sim$le: %o &ou live in Heidenheim'

$resent continuous: Are &ou working to a deadline at the moment'

$ast sim$le: %id &ou go to a Christmas market last weekend'

$resent $er#ect: Have &ou een to Berlin' Have &ou seen the new "ames Bond

#ilm'

c3 &he learners can then stand up and mingle with each other and ask their #uestions$ &ell

them their aim is to find a person who can answer !yes" for each of the four #uestions and

when they have done this they have completed the task$ It´s -B if they find one person who

can answer !yes" to more than one of the #uestions$

%t the end of ;/ or </ minutes, the learners have:

been re4familiarised with the important features of each tense

been reminded of the common mistakes people make when using them

been able to focus on one tense in more detail and e5plain how it works to the rest of

the group

been re4familiarised with the #uestion forms for each of the four tenses



had the opportunity to produce the language by creating their own e5amples and

#uestions in the !find someone who" game

a grammar review lesson

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